Tulsa attorney J.C. Joyce gestures while talking to a reporter about his client, Saint Matthew's Churches, and the Rev. James Eugene Ewing.A. CUERVO / Tulsa World

Still tracking Below: Ole Anthony, the founder of the Trinity
Foundation, a non-profit religious watchdog group, sits among posters displaying
mailings by the Rev. James Eugene Ewing and his organization, now called
Saint Matthew's Churches. Anthony's group has tracked Ewing's organization
for years.JAMES GIBBARD / Tulsa World

Bottom: Mailings from Saint Matthew's Churches often contain items, some pictured here, such as ''miracle cakes,'' coins, prayer cloths and fake currency. An attorney for the organization said they are faith items that help believers focus their prayers.MICHAEL WYKE / Tulsa World

Lucrative 'seed faith' mail ministry has Tulsa ties

Once a traveling tent-revival
preacher, the Rev. James
Eugene Ewing built a direct-mail empire from his mansion
in Los Angeles that brings millions
of dollars flowing into a Tulsa post
office box.

Ewing's computerized mailing operation, Saint Matthew's Churches, mails
more than 1 million letters per month, many to poor, uneducated people, while
Ewing lives in a mansion and drives luxury cars.

The letters contain an alluring
promise of "seed faith": send Saint
Matthew's your money and God
will reward you with cash, a cure
to your illness, a new home and
other blessings. They often contain
items such as prayer cloths, a "Jesus eyes handkerchief," golden
coins, communion wafers and
"sackcloth billfolds." Recipients are
often warned to open the letters in
private and not discuss them with
others.

The approach reaped Ewing and
his organization a gross income of
more than $100 million since 1993,
including $26 million in 1999, the
last year Saint Matthew's made its
tax records public. And while
much of the money is spent on
postage and salaries, Ewing's company receives nonprofit status and
pays no federal taxes.

Though Ewing claims it is a
church, Saint Matthew's Churches,
once called St. Matthew Publishing
Inc., has no address other than a
Tulsa post office box. It has two
listed phone numbers in Tulsa and
both are answered by a recorded
religious message.

The organization is not related
to other Tulsa-area churches
named St. Matthew's, though
many of them have received calls
asking to be removed from its
mailing list.

Ole Anthony, founder of the
Trinity Foundation, a nonprofit religious watchdog group, has tracked
Ewing's organization for years.
The foundation was largely responsible for exposing televangelist
Robert Tilton in 1991 after Antho
ny said he found prayer requests
sent to Tilton in Tulsa trash
Dumpsters.

At the time, Tilton and Ewing
shared the same Tulsa attorney,
J.C. Joyce. Saint Matthew's
Churches is incorporated at
Joyce's downtown Tulsa law office
and the organization paid Joyce's
law firm more than $2.6 million for
legal services during three years,
records show.

Anthony has also obtained documents that describe how Ewing
and his organization use demographic data to target the poor.

"He capitalizes on the isolation
of the loneliest and poorest members of our society, promising
them magical answers to their
fears and needs if only they will
demonstrate their faith by sending
him money," Anthony said.

"He is, quite literally, the father
of the modern-day 'seed-faith' con
cept that fuels the multibillion-dollar Christian industry known as
the 'health-and-wealth gospel.'

"The only ones becoming rich
are the men like Ewing."

Joyce, who has represented Ewing for decades, said Ewing, 70,
would not agree to an interview
for this story. He said Anthony's
characterization of Ewing and his
faith is inaccurate and that Anthony "is not credible."

Joyce said seed faith "is a biblical principle that is preached by
thousands."

"The Bible is full of admonitions
to give."

Joyce said the church has services in a Presbyterian church
that it leases in New York City
and that Ewing preaches during
some of the services.

The pastor of the church, the
Rev. Leslie Merlin, said she had
never heard of Ewing but that
Saint Matthew's Churches conducted services there.

Ewing, who did not attend divinity school, was ordained by
the Communion of Evangelical
Episcopal Churches.

Sharecroppers' son

Ewing was born in Texas in
1933, the son of south Texas
sharecroppers, according to his
mailings. After serving in the Air
Force, he chartered Camp Meetings Revivals in Dallas in 1958.
He described the organization as
"educational, charitable, missionary and evangelistic."

Ewing's tent-revival crusade
grew quickly. A full-page ad in
the 1963 Tulsa World announced
a "deliverance revival: Gene Ewing coming under one of the
world's largest tents."

Ewing kept a decidedly lower
profile several years later when
he returned to Tulsa to meet
Oral Roberts.

Donations to Roberts' ministry
had plummeted after Roberts
built Oral Roberts University
and joined the United Methodist
Church. His top advisers were
seeking a buyer for the ministry's corporate airplane.

The Rev. Wayne A. Robinson,
then the vice president of public
affairs for the Oral Roberts
Evangelistic Association, called
Ewing about the plane. Robinson
was the executive producer of
Roberts' television shows and
editor-in-chief of his publications.
He also was the ghostwriter for
Roberts' autobiography.

Ewing expressed interest in
the plane, which was dispatched
to California to pick up Ewing
and several other associates.

"I brought them in to see
Oral," Robinson recalled. "I was
expecting the appropriate deference of these guys to Oral, the
big man. About the first thing
Gene said was, 'Oral, you are in
trouble, and I can help you.' "

"He had all the things you
can think of of people who had
made it and come out of poverty: the most expensive silk suits,
alligator shoes, coifed hair."

Ewing spoke in broken grammar and one of his model letters contained 17 misspellings,
Robinson said. But Roberts "recognized that this person had
something to say, and he was
willing to listen."

During a second meeting with
Roberts, Ewing laid out his
seed-faith philosophy.

"Gene laid out one of the
most sophisticated fund-raising
campaigns I had ever seen. He
said, 'Oral, I want you to write
your supporters and tell them
you are going in the prayer tower, and you are going to read
their prayer requests and pray
over them.' He stayed there
three days. I forget how many
hundred thousands of letters we
had, but it was huge."

Robinson said that on Ewing's
advice, Roberts responded to the
letters with a letter outlining
seed faith.

"You give and you get from
God. It was a kind of prosperity
gospel," Robinson said.

Roberts was so happy with
Ewing's advice that he gave Ewing the plane, Robinson said.

The next year, income to Roberts' ministry doubled, to $12
million from about $6 million,
Robinson said.

Despite the prosperous times,
Robinson said, he was unhappy
in the job and soon quit. Today,
he is a pastor of the All Faiths
Unitarian Congregation Church
in Fort Myers, Fla.

"Once he did it with the biggest man of all, then all the others were just tickled to get on
board."

Robinson said that after he
left Roberts' ministry, he had a
chance meeting on an airplane
with Tulsa-based evangelist T.L.
Osborn, who had also sought
Ewing's services.

"He said, 'We were down to
counting pencils and paper clips
until Gene came along.' "

A certain flair

Ewing's flair for effective, dramatic direct-mail appeals won
him jobs writing for evangelists
including Tilton, Rex Humbard
and "Rev. Ike." In many cases,
the letters are identical but contain different signatures.

The Trinity Foundation, which
obtained copies of the identical
letters, has dubbed Ewing
"God's Ghostwriter."

"We had nine different televangelists essentially sending
out the same letter," Anthony
said. "He (Ewing) makes most
of his money by selling these
packages to televangelists."

Anthony said one Ewing letter, written for Humbard,
brought in $64 for each copy
mailed. Another mailing by
Humbard contains a "sackcloth
billfold" and asks recipients to
mail a "seed offering" of $19 to
a Boca Raton, Fla., post office
box.

A similar letter from Tilton also contained a "sackcloth billfold" but encouraged recipients
to return a "seed of faith" of at
least $709.00.

Joyce said Ewing has written
for many other evangelists.

"Pastors preach other people's
sermons all the time," he said.

Tulsa evangelist Billy James
Hargis became friends with Ewing in the 1970s, said his wife,
Betty Hargis.

"We were having some difficult times here in Tulsa. He advised my husband on some
things and mainly since that
time it's been a friendship," she
said.

Betty Hargis said she and her
husband receive Ewing's mailings.

"When he does something, he
does it right, first class and
showy."

While writing pitch letters for
other evangelists, Ewing continued to build his own empire.

In 1971, Ewing bought a Dallas church and named it Cathedral of Compassion. A two-page
ad announced the church opening, which was attended by boxer Joe Louis and a bevy of celebrity preachers and politicians.

Three years later, Ewing
moved his Church of Compassion to an elaborate former theater in Los Angeles. Ewing lived
in a mansion across the street
from singer Pat Boone, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times.

Joyce said the home wasn't a
mansion and that it was Ewing's
office.

Ewing later changed the organization's name to Rev. Ewing's
Evangelistic Ministries Inc., or
REEM, a religious, direct-mail
operation that received tax-exempt status.

In 1978, Ewing and an associate, Ray McElrath, incorporated
an advertising company and a
data processing company to provide printing and mailing services to nonprofit religious groups.
The companies were incorporated in Tulsa but kept offices in
California, records show.

Nine months later, the two incorporated Church by Mail Inc.,
with a downtown Tulsa address.
The IRS called the organization
"virtually identical" to REEM.

In its application for tax-exempt status, Church by Mail
stated that "it conducts regular
worship services, usually without
the congregation physically present."

The company sent mailings to
more than 3 million homes in 46
states.

The mailings included the
"Gold Book Partnership with
God" still used by Saint Mat
thew's today. The book contained a year's worth of monthly
coupons. Recipients were instructed to "tear out a coupon
and mail it with a 'faith money
payment' to Rev. Ewing each
month."

Church by Mail's net mail revenue in 1980 totaled just more
than $3 million and it reported
contributing $100 to charity. Despite the hefty revenue, Church
by Mail reported a deficit, mainly because of the complex financial arrangements between the
organization and Ewing's for-profit companies.

Ewing and McElrath's advertising company loaned more
than $2.1 million to Church by
Mail in 1980 and accrued more
than $200,000 in commissions,
the court records show. In addition to salary from Church by
Mail, both were paid salaries by
the advertising company, which
also employed their sons, the records show.

In court filings, the IRS argued that funds generated by
Church by Mail "inure to the
benefit of private individuals."

"Ewing and McElrath sit at
the top of a very lucrative set of
organizations which they totally
control without interference,"
the IRS brief states.

Five years later, with the IRS
court battle still under way, Ewing incorporated Church and Bible Study in the Home by Mail,
also listing Joyce's Tulsa law
firm as its address. Records
show that organization was soon
taking in millions from its direct-mail appeals.

Joyce said the name change
had nothing to do with the court
case.

Meanwhile, Ewing and McElrath lived opulent lifestyles. On
his voter registration form, Ewing listed his occupation as ad
vertising and gave a Beverly
Hills address.

McElrath, who also claims to
be an ordained minister, listed
his occupation as advertising
and gave an address in Marina
del Ray, Calif.

Ewing, McElrath and their
nonprofit and for-profit companies leased numerous luxury
cars from a Tulsa auto leasing
company during the 1980s in
deals arranged by Joyce, records
show. The cars included four
Rolls-Royces, two Jaguars, three
Mercedes sedans and a Ferrari.

Joyce said the auto leases
were paid for through profits
from Ewing's for-profit company.

"Because he's a minister he's
supposed to drive a Jeep?"

Records show both Ewing and
McElrath were paid salaries of
more than $300,000 in 1999, the
last year the organization made
its tax forms public.

Joyce declined to divulge recent financial information about
the church and said it did not
issue annual financial reports.

'Good growth addresses'

Although Ewing and his companies spent thousands each
month to lease expensive automobiles, Ewing was having trouble paying taxes, records show.

A federal tax lien was filed
stating Ewing owed more than
$10,000 in unpaid taxes from
1981 and 1989. Another federal
tax lien sought payment of more
than $346,000 owed by his company Twentieth Century Advertising Agency during 1982 and
1987, records show.

Joyce said the liens were released after the debts were paid.

In 1992, the IRS commissioner
issued a final ruling denying tax-exempt status for Church by
Mail Inc.

The ruling had no impact on
Ewing's Church and Bible Study
in the Home by Mail, which
brought in an average $26,000
per day by 1993, according to a
memo obtained by the Tulsa
World. The memo from McElrath to Joyce trumpets the success of the organization's 1.1
million mailings each month.

"J.C., this growth program is
working like a dream. . . . We
are going to be able to get a
much better selection of good
growth addresses than we have
ever been able to in the past
thanks to a new program that
we now have," states the memo,
dated Oct. 19, 1993.

"Using this new method of selection we are actually picking
those geographic areas that we
know respond the best to our
growth letters. The size of each
special area is about two to four
city blocks. And thank God
there are 10's of thousands of
them across the nation."

Joyce said the the memo "is
very much directed to the goals
of the church in saving souls."

Letters sent to the organization went to a Tulsa post office
box, were opened in Tulsa and
the funds deposited in a Tulsa
bank, court records show.

A 1995 memo from McElrath
to Ewing, Joyce and others
states that the daily bank balance for Church by Mail and
Church and Bible Study in the
Home by Mail must be faxed to
him by 11 a.m. It states that the
report should include "estimates
for all unopened mail including
today's."

Joyce said after the letters are
opened and the funds deposited,
the prayer requests are sent to
Saint Matthew's California offices.

"The church prays over them
five times a day, every day.
They've got 100 people at times
reading them."

The Tulsa World obtained numerous letters written to Saint
Matthew's Churches and its predecessors.

One letter from Sister Lupe
Martinez thanks Ewing for praying for her. Martinez states she
is unemployed, 65 years old and
living on a monthly pension
check.

"I try my best to help your
mission, whatever I could give,"
the letter states.

A postcard filled out and returned by a boy from Detroit
contains a note in a child's
handwriting.

"I am 10 years old. I only can
give a quarter. Please don't underrate me because of my age, I
believe strongly in Jesus," it
states.

Some recipients of Ewing's
mailings sent him angry letters
demanding to be removed from
his mailing list.

A pastor from Tyler, Texas,
wrote to Ewing, asking that a
member of his church be removed from the Saint Matthew's
mailing list: "Rev. Ewing, I have
written to you to stop sending
these letters . . . as per her request. As her pastor, I am sending a copy of this letter to the
state attorney general's office to
have the letters stopped."

Joyce said Saint Matthew's removes people from its mailing
list upon request. He said there
may be a lag time between the
request and the removal because Saint Matthew's uses a
commercial printing company for
its mailing services.

Some Ewing mailings contain
a coupon that recipients can cut
out, sign and state how much
money they hope God will bring
them. One woman filled out her
name and stated that she needed $150 million while another
simply wrote, "All I can get."

Shirley Waldemar of West
Hampstead, N.Y., gave about
$80 a month to Saint Matthew's
Churches for about five months
until she began to wonder who
was behind the company.

"They would send you a little
piece of cloth and it was supposed to be doing things for
you, and I thought that was silly."

Waldemar said she stopped
sending money after she was
unable to reach a person connected with the company on the
telephone or find a street address for it in Tulsa.

"They purport to pray for people who are having problems.
. . . They were basically just asking for money. . . . It did make
you feel if you did not give,
something bad would happen."

Financial blessings in return

Mail-order ministry
promises spiritual and
financial windfalls
in
return for a donation.

In the world of Saint Matthew's Churches, Heaven is a
bank and God is the bank
president.

The organization mails more
than 1 million letters across
the country each month seeking money from recipients and
promising a spiritual and financial windfall in return. The
letters list a Tulsa post office
box but no telephone number,
street address or names of individuals behind the operation.

Gae Widdows, a Tulsa attorney, said one of her clients is
a veteran with schizophrenia
who receives mailings from
Saint Matthew's. She said the
man frequently lives on the
streets because he has little to
no income.

"They told him if he would
send money, he would not
need to take his medication.
He actually stopped taking his
meds and got locked up,"
Widdows said.

Before even opening the letters, recipients are urged to
be secretive about their contents.

"It is absolutely vital that
you read this letter now!"
states an envelope mailed Jan.
20.

"Try to take it to a room or
somewhere where you can be
alone with the Lord," the envelope says. "Personal and private letter."

The mailing from Saint Matthew's includes a $10,000
"faith check" written on the
Bank of Heaven. It lists the
bank president as God, the
Father; vice president as Jesus, the Son, and the secretary and treasurer as The Holy Ghost.

"Place the faith check in
your wallet and keep it there
until the blessing unfolds," the
letter states.

"Whisper the name of Jesus
three times as you write your
name on the back of your
Faith Check."

The mailing includes a testimonial from "Mrs. F.L.C.,"
who claims that God sent her
$28,000 after she gave money
to Saint Matthew's.

The letter ends by instructing recipients to send money
back to Saint Matthew's in order to release God's financial
blessing. It asks for "the largest bill you have or the biggest check you can write."

Another mailing, also in January, is marked "private and
confidential" and states that it
has been sent from "a secret
place of prayer." The mailing
includes a scrap of fleece,
dyed green on one side and
silver on the other, presumably to represent the color of
money.

Recipients are instructed to
place the fleece in their wallets and sleep on it "to break
the financial curse that has
troubled your money matters."

Recipients are told to return
the fleece with "seed money"
for Saint Matthew's, borrowing
it if necessary.

The letter is signed: "A
group of praying people,
friends of Jesus for 52 glorious years of helping people."

A mailing in 1998 contained
a sealed packet of "five miracle cakes" that resemble communion wafers. Recipients
were instructed to eat one
each night to trigger five "prophetic events" in their lives,
including an "unusual money
blessing."

The letter instructs recipients to return a donation of $7
or $17.

In a press release, Saint
Matthew's Churches states
that it does not solicit money.

"The ministers of this 50-year-old church have always
had a vision to bring in as
much in donations (tithes and
free-will offerings) as possible
so they can spend those donations on publishing and
preaching the gospel of salvation," the release states.

History of Saint Matthew's, related organizations

1933: James E. Ewing is born in
Texas. Milton R. McElrath is born
in Conway, Ark.

1953: Ewing enters basic training at Lackland Air Force Base.
Ewing's magazine would later claim
that "many soldiers gave their lives
to Christ with Bro. Ewing kneeling
by their side in airplanes, in barracks or anyplace."

1957: Ewing completes service
in the Air Force.

1958: Ewing charters Camp
Meetings Revivals in Dallas.

1968: Income to Ewing's organization reportedly tops $2 million.
Ewing advises Oral Roberts to ask
supporters to write him letters,
which the evangelist would take to
his prayer tower and pray over for
three days.

1971: Ewing renames his organization Church of Compassion. Officers listed are D.R. Luce, O.
Duane Snyder, M.R. McElrath and
Doris J. Ratliff. Investors purchase
a Dallas church and Ewing names
it the Cathedral of Compassion.

1974: Ewing moves his Church
of Compassion to Los Angeles. An
article in the Los Angeles Times
describes the Church of Compassion as as mail-order church with
half a million "members." Income
reportedly exceeds $3 million.

1979: Ewing and McElrath incorporate Twentieth Century Advertising Agency and Twentieth Century
Data Processing Inc. in Oklahoma.
The for-profit companies, which
have offices in California, are
formed to provide printing and
mailing services to nonprofit religious groups.

Nine months later, Church by
Mail Inc. is incorporated in Tulsa.
Incorporators are James E. Ewing,
M.R. McElrath, Doris J. Ratliff and
O. Duane Snyder. D.R. Luce is
named its vice president.

1980: Church by Mail applies to
the IRS for tax-exempt status. The
company states on its application
that "it conducts regular worship
services, usually without the congregation physically present."

Church by Mail's net mail reve
nue is more than $3 million.

1987: Ewing incorporates
Church and Bible Study in the
Home by Mail, which lists the Tulsa
law office of Joyce and Pollard as
its address.

1990: Church and Bible Study
in the Home by Mail reports income of $4.16 million and a negative balance of $4.17 million on its
IRS forms.

1991: The IRS files a federal tax
lien against Twentieth Century Advertising Inc. The lien seeks payment of $346,000 in unpaid taxes
from 1982 and 1987. The IRS also
files a lien against Ewing, seeking
payment of $10,000 in back taxes.

Church and Bible Study in the
Home by Mail reports income of $4
million and a deficit of more than
$900,000 on its IRS forms. Expenses include more than $960,000 in
salaries, $160,000 in rent and
$600,000 in printing and mailing
costs.

1992: IRS commissioner issues
a final ruling denying tax-exempt
status for Church by Mail Inc. The
company appeals the order.

The state of California files a lien
against Ewing in Los Angeles for
failure to pay more than $7,000 in
franchise taxes.

Church and Bible Study in the
Home by Mail reports income of
more than $6 million from contributions and expenses of $6.3 million.

1993: Ewing is living in a $2.2
million, 6,400-square-foot home
above Beverly Hills. The home has
a large garage, and photographs
depict several exotic and classic
cars parked in the driveway.

A memo from McElrath to attorney J.C. Joyce states that Church
and Bible Study in the Home By
Mail has developed a computer
program to target "good growth
addresses." The memo forecasts a
monthly return of $600,000 on the
letters mailed:

"We are actually picking those
geographic areas that we know respond the best to our growth let
ters. The size of each special area
is about two to four city blocks.
And thank God there are 10's of
thousands of them across the nation."

1994:
In a filing with the U.S. Tax Court, the commissioner of the Internal Revenue
Service argues that Church by Mail Inc. is "operated for private rather
than public interests" and "is not a church" within the meaning of federal
tax laws.

1997: St. Matthew Publishing
Inc., incorporated at Joyce's Tulsa
law office, files documents with the
Internal Revenue Service reporting
$15.6 million in revenue. Ewing reports receiving $307,187 in salary
and benefits while McElrath reports
$277,000 in salary and benefits.

1999: St. Matthew Publishing
Inc. reports $26.8 million in revenue. Of that, the organization spent
$4 million on salaries, $989,140 on
legal fees, $817,000 for housing
and rent and $649,000 on travel.

2000: After a lengthy court battle in which St. Matthew Publishing
Inc. sued the federal government,
the U.S. Court of Federal Claims
rules that for tax years 1979 and
1980, St. Matthew Publishing Inc.
was not a tax-exempt organization.
For tax years 1981 through the
present, the court found the organization was tax exempt.

2002: The national Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance, a charity watchdog group,
reports that Saint Matthew's
Churches refused to provide current information about its finances,
programs or governance.

"The Alliance notes that BBBs
from across the country have received public inquiries from individuals who have received direct mail
letters from this organization."

The Rev. James Eugene Ewing built a direct-mail empire from his
mansion in Los Angeles that brings millions of dollars flowing into a
Tulsa post office box. The approach reaped Ewing and his organization
more than $100 million since 1993, including $26 million in 1999, the
last year Saint Matthew's made its tax records public.